The Hidden Costs and Risks of Manual Supplier Tendering
"I don’t run tenders; I just get prices and availability from my preferred suppliers and compare them quickly." This is a common response, but manually managing your supplier tendering like this comes with significant issues.
The Problems with Manual Tendering
- Inefficiency: Relying on spreadsheets, emails, share drives and phone calls to manage supplier information is time-consuming and drains productivity. Small teams, in particular, feel the impact when manual processes take up valuable time, resulting in lost productivity and higher costs.
- Privacy Risks: Managing access to sensitive information across emails and shared drives is challenging. If a data breach occurs, it can be difficult to trace what was compromised. Businesses have both legal and ethical obligations to protect confidential information.
- Errors and Their Cost: Mistakes are inevitable with manual methods, but identifying and correcting them can take significantly more time than the initial process. This lost time translates directly into lost profits.
- Audit Challenges: Businesses are increasingly required to demonstrate fair and transparent processes, like spending with local, social impact and/or indigenous suppliers. Manual processes make it hard to prove compliance, creating potential legal and compliance risks.
After realizing these inefficiencies, many business owners see that they are, in effect, running a manual tender process—and doing so incredibly inefficiently. A dedicated tender management solution can streamline this, saving time, increasing savings and reducing risk.
The Solution
Adding a simpler and easy to use tender management system for all non-core or off-contract purchasing can act as a secondary safety net, mitigating these issues.
Talk to us via the request contact for more information about our easy, fast and affordable solution.
